Sprite Monkey

Here's a tool called Sprite Monkey I made originally for personal use but decided to release at a very low price.

If you are not using sprite sheets, no matter what tool you do it with, you should be. Sprite sheets help reduce memory for games. Just look at the properties of a single image. It's actual size is less then what is be used on your hard drive. The same thing happens in memory. So just imagine how much you are bloating the memory with your game if you are only using single images. To help reduce this effect, group them together in a sheet. Then just clip it at run time.

Thanks for the criticism! But Sprite Monkey is a lot smaller and faster then TexturePacker. It also creates proper 8-bit and 4-bit images. Just did a test between the two creating a 8-bit sprite sheet. Here's the results...

Ok, just did the same test as above but at 32-bit png images instead of 8-bit png images. Here's the results...

TP - 193kb, image size: 1024x512 (reduction in sprite sizes)

SM - 156kb, 2048x512 (no reduction in sprite sizes)

Sprite Monkey still wins even when the image is larger. Not only that but why is TexturePacker 117.2 MB? That's quite large for what it does. SpriteMonkey is only 479 kb.

EDIT: I did a second test for Sprite Monkey with the sprites reduced down like in TexturePacker and the file size was 149kb. Not much difference of the 156kb when Sprite Monkey was using original sprite sizes. So cropping the sprites edge to edge does do some reduction but not much. At least for Sprite Monkey anyway. File sizes are already small.

Critical features I consider missing:
* plist format (as I use this exclusively with cocos2d)
* Aliasing (when used with above, will reduce images even further for sprite sheets that contain duplicates)
* Command line (to automate the building process from raw to finished product)
* Ability to save a conversion (if I add more images to my folder, I want to basically rerun a saved setting, and reexport (ideally in my build process))
* auto-POT
* preview of the sprite sheet while I'm working on it (useful to know how large it's gonna be so I can plan accordingly)

A note about your demo: it would have been less annoying if you placed a watermark (semi-transparent) instead of an obnoxious image over everything, so I can barely even tell if it exported correctly (it covered up 2 out of 8 of my sprites).

Anyways, this is a good start. I think if you worked on some of the crucial features needed, you could probably even up how much you charge for it

(Aug 18, 2011 06:12 PM)skyhawk Wrote: Critical features I consider missing:
* plist format (as I use this exclusively with cocos2d)
* Aliasing (when used with above, will reduce images even further for sprite sheets that contain duplicates)
* Command line (to automate the building process from raw to finished product)
* Ability to save a conversion (if I add more images to my folder, I want to basically rerun a saved setting, and reexport (ideally in my build process))
* auto-POT
* preview of the sprite sheet while I'm working on it (useful to know how large it's gonna be so I can plan accordingly)

A note about your demo: it would have been less annoying if you placed a watermark (semi-transparent) instead of an obnoxious image over everything, so I can barely even tell if it exported correctly (it covered up 2 out of 8 of my sprites).

Anyways, this is a good start. I think if you worked on some of the crucial features needed, you could probably even up how much you charge for it

Thanks for the response!

I made the watermarks like that because it's basically a demo showing what it's capable of doing. And to remove them it's only a couple of bucks. Really just protection for me in hopes to get buyers.

I have been thinking about some features but not too many. For right now this sprite sheet maker is for the person who thinks ahead, so to say. When I make sprites in my animation program, I know exactly what I want and how it will export. Then all I have to do is throw it in Sprite Monkey and make it into a sheet. Version 2, when it comes, may have an editor for layout. If so, then there will be an option to choose the editor or compact mode when the program starts. Just because I myself will have my images ready for what I want and have no need for an editor.

As for the plist, I will have to look that up.

Also, I think the price is fine. Even if more features were added, Sprite Monkey will stay cheap. I'm not trying to get rich. Just trying to do what I enjoy and make a little pocket cash.

I just uploaded v1.2 on iTunes Connect. So it will be a while before it released. But it now exports a "*.smc" file. It is a comma delimited UTF-8 file. It should be easy to parse in any programming language. See example below. The example file is pretty small, less then 1kb.

Just released v1.3 on the Mac App Store! Sprite Monkey now exports 1-bit, 24-bit and Alpha Channel in a 8-bit png. The alpha channel export can be used for effects, such as masking, shadows, ect. if your game editor or coding support it. The 24-bit was requested by a reviewer on the Mac App Store and it can export a normal 24-bit or strip the alpha channel before adding a background. For the retro aliased edge effect. And of course 1-bit is for old school game design in black and white with very small file size.

I also have a quick release of version 1.4 coming to the Mac App Store approximately on May 16th. The cocos2D developers should enjoy that one.